List of mountains and hills of the Palatine Forest



This list of mountains and hills in the Palatine Forest contains a selection of the highest or more notable peaks located in the natural region of the Palatine Forest in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate (maximum ).

The mountain range is formed from a slab of Bunter sandstone, about 500 metres thick, that is characterized by a complex relief with deeply incised V-shaped valleys, many different hill shapes and dense forests. Because its rock strata were tilted during the formation of the Upper Rhine Graben and descend from east to west, its highest points, which climb to over, are found in the Haardt, a long ridge that forms the edge of the Palatine Forest in the east above the Rhine Plain. In the central Palatine Forest is the plateau of Frankenweide, in which several more mountains are located that also exceed the 600 metre mark. By contrast, the hills in the north of the Palatine Forest, i. e. in the Stumpfwald and Otterberg Forest, only reach about 350 to ; they are largely embedded in erosion surfaces and rise only around 100 to 150 metres above them. Considerably more varied are the hills of the southern Palatine Forest, a region also known as the Wasgau which, as a unified natural region, crosses the border and runs as far as the Col de Saverne. Its small-scale surface topology includes numerous, different hill shapes – characterized by conical hills for example – with heights range from 450 to. They often exhibit bizarre rock formations, that in many cases have been used for the construction and location of rock and hill castles.

Because not all the mountains and hills of the Palatine Forest can be included in this list, a number of criteria have been used to make the selection. Of prime importance have been their geomorphological (e. g. rock, relief etc.), biological (e. g. flora like forest coverage and contiguity), cultural historic (e. g. castles, former cultic sites), touristic (e. g. observation towers, Palatine Forest Club huts etc.) and infrastructural features (e. g. transport routes, industrial usage etc.).

Table
Entries in the table are sorted by height in metres above sea level (NHN). However, the table may also be sorted by the data in columns 1 to 5 by clicking the symbol at the head of the wanted column. In the "Name" column, alternative names for the mountains and hills are given in brackets, in small, italic font. Names that recur are disambiguated by place names in brackets and small font.

The abbreviations used in the table are explained below.

Abbreviations
Meanings of the abbreviations found in the table:
 * NHN = Normalhöhennull i.e. the sea level datum used in Germany
 * PWV = Palatine Forest Club (Palatine Forest Club)

Literature

 * Michael Geiger et al.(ed.): Der Pfälzerwald, Porträt of a Landschaft. Verlag Pfälzische Landeskunde, Landau/Pf., 1987. ISBN 3980114716
 * Michael Geiger et al. (ed.): Geographie der Pfalz. Verlag Pfälzische Landeskunde, Landau/Pf., 2010. ISBN 9783981297409
 * Adolf Hanle: Meyers Naturführer, Pfälzerwald und Weinstraße. Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim, 1990. pp. 7–12 ISBN 3411071311
 * Karl Heinz: Pfalz: mit Weinstraße; Landschaft, Geschichte, Kultur, Kunst, Volkstum. Glock und Lutz Verlag, Heroldsberg, 1976. ASIN: B002GZ8RN
 * Emil Heuser: Neuer Pfalzführer, 14th edn., (1st edn., 1900). Waldkirch-Verlag, Ludwigshafen, 1979. ASIN: B0043G3V6M
 * Landesamt für Vermessung and Geobasisinformation Rheinland-Pfalz (publ.): 1:25.000 and 1:50.000 map series.Eigenverlag der Landesamtes für Vermessung und Geobasisinformation Rheinland-Pfalz, Koblenz, various years